The Legacy We Carry
by GoldenRose Storm
Summary: A 17 year old disagreement between Rikku and Paine lead to chaos in Spira. Now their children vow to uphold their legacy and return peace to their home.
1. Where 17 years have brought us

**Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X-2 or anything Square Enix does**

**Chapter One: Where 17 Years Have Lead Us**

It was roughly 17 years since the day Tidus returned. Seventeen long, long years. Happy years, stressful years, years of fighting, years of romance. A peaceful time filled with hectic lives. About a year after the defeat of Shuyin, Rikku and Gippal were married, and ten months later Rikku gave birth to Laralyne, their only daughter. She looked much like Rikku did when she was younger. Now, 15 years old, Laralyne wore her hair just as Rikku had when she was her age, and had mastered the art of double daggers, claws, and guns. However, she was the image of defiance, and her persona was like a flaming torch balancing on the tip of a ledge, one wrong movement and it fell to the ground, engulfing all before it in flames.

But her parents loved her, and she was quite adored by all the Al Bhed, being known mainly as 'Gippal's Little Girl'. Laralyne hated it. So what if her father was basically the leader of the Al Bhed? So what if her parents were the two most famous Al Bhed there were? That didn't mean she had to be raised like a doll, only for show, constant lessons from her mother on her manners and her etiquette, always meeting new leaders of Spira like a pretty jewel her parents loved to show off to all their friends.

She couldn't understand how everyone said Rikku had been such a lively, free-spirited young girl, when now all she seemed to be was a fiend that preyed on any sort of entertainment or independence on Laralyne's part, until her daughter's entire life was virtually fun free. Life at Djose, which had become a small city, was definately not what she would have picked for herself. There was only one perfect thing in Laralyne's life. Aaron.

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After 17 years, 17 hard, wearying years, Paine had one solid, concrete example of everything she had accomplished. That one thing, was her son. Paine had married Baralai, to no one's surprise, about a month before Rikku had married Gippal. Her son had been born three days before Rikku's daughter, to Yuna's delight. Not to Paine's though. And certainly not to Rikku's.

In fact, Paine hadn't spoken to Rikku in over 16 years. Well that wasn't true. There were a few instances where Paine had gotten into a very inappropriate arguement over their children. But never once had anything friendly been said between them, in those long 16 years.

Rikku had started dating Baralai the same week Vegnagun fell, and it seemed as though they were doing excellent. Gippal had gone to work with Cid, moving out to Bikanel Desert to work on the rebuilding of Home. Even though the Al Bhed no longer neaded a safe house, it was good to have a place where they were all welcome, a place that was like a fully Al Bhed community, without leftover predjudice from earlier times.

And so Rikku had come crawling to Baralai, probably looking for someone to fuck in the meantime, in Paine's opinion, and it had set her off like she had never been set off before. She had stormed into Baralai's apartment in Bevelle, luckily while Rikku was away, and convinced Baralai to get rid of Rikku.

"Do you love me Baralai?" She said. It was the first thing off her lips when she walked through the door. He answered yes. "How long will you love me?" Paine had asked, her eyes flickering with lust, love, and jealousy. And he said he would love her till he died. "How long have you loved me?" She said, her final question. "Since I first saw you." Baralai answered. And it was enough for Paine.

It was true, Baralai had always had a thing for Paine. But when she had made it apparant she had no feelings for him, he had moved on, even to the point of dating Yuna's younger cousin. But when Paine had showed up, a fiery lust in her eyes, he had returned to the days of the Crimson Squad, where he would watch her every movement, entranced by her grace.

It wasn't completely unaccurate to say Paine had taken advantage of Baralai, but manipulated was a better term, even to her. She knew how to take everything from Baralai but his fascination by her, any other feelings, his honor, his dignity. She was like a siren, able to drawhim to her, captivatinghim until it was too late.

Once she had the passionate love Baralai had for her rekindled,she knew she had succeeded, and just so that Baralai could not revoke the vows he made her, she screwed him, making his descision final. Rikku would not think highly of Baralai once she found out that he had screwed her best friend in the bed that they too had shared. Rikku had arrived just as Paine was making out with Baralai on the porch, her way of saying goodbye to him.

Rikku was screaming insults at them both from the street, gazing at them with hatred. Paine turned, an innocent, but oh so evil smirk on her face. "All's fair in love and war. Tough luck, tootse, you seem to be yesterday's news." She said, before walking right past her and hopping onto the lift, blowing a kiss to Baralai, who stood, rather embarrassed, before Rikku.

And that had been the end of that. Rikku had walked away from Bevelle, and a bloody-nosed Baralai, leaving behind her past, her past melting into her future as she rewrote her personality sub-consciously, taking out most of the immaturity and replacing it with the silent knowledge she had desired since her childhood.

Of course she had run straight to Gippal, and they had dated, Gippal growing a hatred for the people who had hurt her so, causing her to change so drastically, and yet so little. And that had been the start of the feuding. It had created much tension between the Yevonites and the Al Bhed, but this time the people did not discriminate against Al Bhed, or the Yevonites, but were always aware of the battle that constantly raged throughout the land that had seen so little calm in the last millenium.

And, no matter how much they mentally denied it, it was all because of an immature fight over a praetor between two former friends.

But Paine had Aaron to think of now. He was 15 now, tall, handsome, smart, and strong. He was still learning to weild the sword and the staff his father used. Somehow he seemed less adequate with them than Paine would expect, as he practiced with them day and night.

That is, when he wasn't sneaking out to see that damned Al Bhed wench. Rikku's daughter. For some reason he could not comprehend that she was below him. She and her bastard parents. There were plenty of pretty New Yevon Daughters, as their group had come to be called. They were the daughters of the high-ranking New Yevon officials, all smart, lovely girls, unlike the wild Laralyne. They didn't have anger problems that usually resulted in them getting into fights with knives and guns. No, they were all polite, respectful girls.

But Aaron had a tendency to be drawn to the vixenish Al Bhed, and he would escape the city one way or another, always finding that god forsaken girl on the Thunder Plains. Paine always knew when her son had gone when she found his rain soaked clothing in the laundry. And no matter what Paine did, she couldn't stop him. She had sentenced him to practice the sword for a week at the academy, gaurded by soldiers, but somehow he eluded them at night, coming back by dawn and practicing his sword again, sleeping hardly at all.

He just couldn't see that he was so much better than Laralyne.

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Yuna's life had gone well, she had been married to Tidus six months after he returned, and she bore twins three years later, a boy and a girl. She named them Lenne and Shuyin, in honor of the memories she held. The sight of them brought tears to her eyes, her love for them so over-powering she had fainted before when they had walked into the room. She never thought she could love anything half as much as she loved Tidus, but the devotion she had towards her beautiful children made her believe she couldn't live a second should one of them fall to death.

Surprisingly, they grew to look eerily like the real Lenne and Shuyin, and they were 14 now, only 3 years younger than the lovers had been when they died, and the resemblance shocked a great many who knew of them. The only thing that confused their parents was how Lenne was born with brown eyes, considering Yuna had blue and green, Tidus had blue, Yuna's mother had green, her father had blue. They supposed it was from Tidus's side of the family, but it seemed odd all the same.

I fact, it was Tidus who insisted they name the boy Shuyin, after Yuna had decided she would name her daughter Lenne. It may have seemed odd, having a brother and sister named after two lovers, but the children loved their names, taking them as a symbol of the memories of the people, of all the people who fought for Spira. They were amazingly well behaved children, even though Yuna and Tidus encouraged them to be free spirited. They new well Spira's tragic history, the suffering their parents had endured, and the ones they were named for. They new the suffering of the people. Somehow it seemed, fragments of emotion, not memories, per say, but the memory that accompanied memories, those of feelings, had poured into their souls.

They were truly incredible children.

As for the argument between Rikku and Paine, Yuna was fed up with it. Even after all she had sacrificed, after all the pain, the grief that gone into making Spira a place of peace and calm, they insisted on sabotaging eveything she had strove to create, ruling Spira from the bedrooms like tyrants, insisting on pulling the rest of Spira into a 17 year old feud over teen love. She had visited them each a few times, their conversations strained. She didn't support either of them. She was angrier at them than she was at the men who carried out their wills, but nothing she did would quell their anger.

Though their children seemed decent enough. Their natural opinions supressed by the presence of their parents, but she could tell that they saw the pointlessness in the struggle caused by their parents.

Perhaps Yuna's fault in all of this was the forgiveness she lacked. She no longer tried to break the conflict between her friends, and instead separated herself from them. She gave speeches still, encouraging peace in Spira, and was still adored

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Wakka and Lulu's son Vidina was the oldest of the children born to the old friends, being seventeen now. He had a younger sister, Aerella, who was almost 14. She was a very docile girl, with long black hair like her mothers, unlike Vidina's orange hair he kept spiked. They seemed to grow up a lot like their parents had, then new generation adapting a lot of their parents' traits, Vidina with a little less of his father's cluelessness, and Aerella a little more social and sparkling than Lulu. It was just the way it was.

The children were both really good friends with Lenne and Shuyin, who lived with their parents in Luca. They however, stayed on the beach in Besaid. Yuna and Tidus came to visit them often, bringing their children with them. And often, and the insisting of Vidina and Aerella, Wakka and Lulu would let them board a ship to Luca, to stay with Lenne and Shuyin. It was something they adored, spending time with their 'cousins'. Perhaps more went on there then the adults knew of. Not romantically, but it seemed that these visits meant more to the children than was natural. And it was. It meant far, far more to them then anyone knew.

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	2. Drastically Wrong

**A/N Sorry if the fued between Paine and Rikku is ooc, but it doesn't really matter how it happened, thats not important to the story. The point is, Laralyne and Aaron and the other four aren't really sposed to see eachother, specially not Lara and Aaron. It's forbidden romance. But that isn't the point either. this is not some sappy Romeo and Juliet thing. **

**Chapter 2: Drastically Wrong**

Laralyne waited until she was sure her mother and father were sleeping before she opened her window. Her room was situated on the top floor of Djose Temple, at least four stories high. It didn't bother her though, considering the number of times she had escaped from the room. The decent was easy, using her double daggers to claw her way down the side of the temple. She reached the bottom in minutes, sheathed her daggers next to her gun, and took off at a fast jog down towards the moonflow.

She was dressed in a black halter top and short black shorts secured by the belt she kept her weapons in. Her hair, blonde streaked with red highlights, was tied back into a long pony tail. Ten minutes passed and she was at the bank of the moonflow, her sandaled feet just brushing the edge of the water as she stared across the river for a moment, before leaping onto the lift that had been built to carry people across the river when shoopufs became endangered. Activating the machines that ran it, it propelled her quickly across the pyrefly illuminated water, and she hopped off onto the other bank. Sliding silently onto the forest path, she raced towards Guadosalam. Laralyne checked her watch, it showed that it was 11:30 P.M. She was right on time.

She reached the entrance to Guadosalam quickly, jogging down the ramp into the eerily quiet town. Thankfully not a single guado or human was outdoors, and Laralyne was able to pass through the town without hindrance, until she was looking out over the thunder plains, listening to the roar of thunder and searching for the figure that should be somewhere nearby. It wasn't.

Laralyne rushed out onto the wet and muddy ground, ignoring the rain that cascading down her body as she searched the area quickly. "Aaron!" She shouted, listening as her voice echoed throughout the plains, making her feel very alone. She wasn't afraid of lightening and thunder, and loved the rain, but somehow the vast thunder plains made her feel uneasy, especially when she felt so alone. "Aaron!"

"I'm here, Lara!" She heard a voice call, and saw Aaron emerge from the mist. She sighed, relieved he had shown up and wasn't hurt or something. Aaron was quite handsome, even when drenched in rain. He had silver hair like his mother, though right now his was drenched and messy, falling slightly into his eyes. Usually it was combed to look a lot like Baralai's. He had his father's complexion, deep brown skin that was smooth, without a flaw, and brown eyes like his father as well. He was wearing loose black pants and a loose silver shirt, both drenched with the frigid rain and clinging wetly to his body.

Laralyne embraced him tightly, not caring that she was getting even more wet than she already was, before pulling away. She ran a hand through his hair, and then kissed him gently, ignoring the rain and the cold, just happy to be in eachothers embrace. They broke apart after a few moments, smiling, before Aaron took her hand and led her back to Guadosalam.

"We're right on time, we half half an hour to meet the others. Better hurry." Laralyne said quietly as the entered Guadosalam. A Guado was standing before the mansion, gazing up at it wearily, green spiky hair branching out at all angles. It was Tromell.

"Trom-?" Aaron said softly, and the guado turned to face the couple. He looked so old and frail now, even after seventeen years he still kept the Guado at peace with the other peoples of Spira. The fight with the Ronso tribe had proven a difficult barrier to overcome, but after a few minor arguments Kimarhi and Tromell had managed to join the races in friendship again.

"Yes, my dear boy, it is I. Old and weary, but it is I." Tromell answered, in his slow voice. Indeed he did look older and more weary than he had, lately he had been aging twice as fast. "You must be freezing, children. I thought you might be here tonight, and so I brought these out."

Tromell was one of the only people who excepted the relationship between Laralyne and Aaron. He was always helpful, like now as he was passing them both warm black blankets. He sighed, nodded, and walked back into the mansion. Sometimes it was hard to predict Tromell. The teens wondered if he had come out solely to give them blankets or for something else as well.

"Poor Tromell." Laralyne said shortly, wrapping herself in the blanket. "Ooo, toasty!" She said, grinning. Then she took Aaron's hand and the two jogged off towards their destination, the Djose Highroad.

"How have the 'parents' been?" She asked him, even as the ran. Paine and Baralai were always totally unexcepting, just as her parents were. Thank goodness it wasn't hard to sneak out. The two had been in love for years, and had been friends and playmates since they were very young. At first Rikku and Paine's argument had been just extreme amounts of tension between them, nothing too serious (perhaps it was the desperate efforts of Yuna that made them be _almost_ civil towards eachother) even though they argued about everything. But the tension grew and grew until it was imbued into their minds that the other was a poisen desperate to ruin their lives.

"Normal. You?" Aaron replied, hopping onto the lift at the moonflow behind Laralyne.

"I got in trouble for trying to stab a potential boyfriend. I can_not_ believe they keep trying to hook me up with those _freaks_!" She said, laughing. Aaron laughed along with her, knowing she would never consider another guy besides him. It was the way it was. They both knew it, it was obvious, they were made for eachother.

They sped down the path, a few houses had been built about the end closest to the temple, but the lights were out and the inhabitants were asleep, oblivious to the young couple who had escaped their homes to preserve forbidden love, and unknown friendship.

"Oh fuck, stop!" Laralyne whispered, jerking back on Aaron's hand, pulling him to a complete stop. In the shadows up ahead was the figure of Rikku. She was wearing a long dark red dress and was holding a grey cloak around herself.

"Laralyne, Dammit, where are you!? I know your off at the thunder plains again, with that miscreante son of hers! I just don't understand you. But...not tonight. Can't I just get one night without you sneaking off to ruin your life?" Rikku shouted to the still night air, before walking quickly up the path towards the moonflow, grumbling to herself. Laralyne had to stifle a snort at her remarks.

"Come on." Laralyne said giggling. Aaron nodded and they set of sprinting down the highroad. It took a few minutes, but they finally reached the edge, just where the Mi'ihen Highroad and the Djose Highroad met.

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Vidina and Aerella were in Luca visting Lenne and Shuyin that day. Of course, the only reason they insisted on going to Luca all the time was so the six teenagers could meet together. Their parents didn't have a clue they knew eachother so well, about how great of friends they were. It felt odd, not telling their parents, but it was something that was their secret.

The four, Lenne, Shuyin, Aerella and Vidina set off at 11:30, Vidina's arm linked with Aerella, who was linked with Lenne, who was linked with Shuyin. They walked silently, never making any sound so as not to wake Yuna or Tidus, or any other person in Luca. It felt so good to be near eachother, best friends that lived for eachother. And of course Laralyne and Aaron. Together they were a sort of secret committee, the new generation of Spira, the children of the eight most powerful figures in Spira. Nooj would be counted amongst them, but he and Leblanc had been killed when they went searching for spheres in the caves of the calm lands, nearly 13 years ago. Ormi and Logos had gone into denial and had moved to Bevelle. The syndicate had broken up and was now a remnant of the past.

"Who's turn to drive?" Asked Aerella, hopping onto the hover waiting at the entrance of the highroad. "I did it last time."

"Me!" Squealed Lenne, climbing into the driver's spot, the two boys sitting behind her with Aerella. She turned on the engine, laughing quietly to herself. She always loved driving hovers, even though it was technically illegal. Even if somebody saw her, she wouldn't get more than a scolding from them. Slowly she turned the large craft around, which was difficult in the dark, but she managed. Then she started off at a slow pace, considering the narrow paths and small amounts of light, and drove towards the edge of the highroad.

It took about fifteen minutes to get to the end because of the chocobos that were running in the road. Lenne nearly mowed a couple down, but managed to avoid them. "Would you stop attempting to murder the poor things!" Aerella laughed, and Lenne blushed a little bit.

"Well it's not like it's easy to see them in the dark! Why don't we just ride them next time?" Lenne asked, swerving to avoid a fluffy chocobo that had decided to run in front of the hover.

"Because we like driving too much?" Shuyin suggested helpfully, leaning against the side of the hover casually. The other three laughed softly and quieted down.

With a screech, Lenne slammed on the brakes, pitching the passengers forward and nearly throwing them off.

"Yevon, Lenne! What was that for?" Vidina asked, glaring playfully at her.

"Oops...sorry. Oh, we're here!" Lenne said cheerily, hopping off of the hover onto the soft grass and helping Aerella down as well. Shuyin and Vidina jumped down as well, and the four looked to the edge of the highroad, where it met with the Djose highroad. Eyes scanned the fog for the figures they knew so well.

"Laralyne...Aaron...?" Aerella crooned softly, straining to see if the teens were lurking in the shadows up ahead. The silence was very odd, silent in a way that Aerella hadn't heard before, there was no sound, but in the distance somewhere was the hint of noise, of commotion. Like being in total darkness but knowing there was light just behind you. It was eery.

"Where are they?" Shuyin asked quietly, taking a step forward into the misty darkness. "They should be here...what time is it?"

Vidina checked his watch, his eyes grim. "12:05. We're _late_, even. They've never been late before. Even if it is only five minutes..."

"Maybe we should look for them?" Lenne suggested, stepping forward towards her brother. "Lara!? Aaron?" She called hopefully. Still no answer. That was strange, to say the least.

"Check the comm, Aerella. And Lenne, we'll have to go with your idea, we're getting the chocobos. You two-" he gestured to Shuyin and Lenne, "-get ahold of four and bring them here." Vidina had the habit of taking charge when he was nervous, a rather odd habit, but was usually helpful. He was the oldest of them, after all, and he was the one who usually made the best decisions.

The three nodded, and Lenne and Shuyin jogged off down the oldroad, where the chocobos were usually plentiful. Aerella pulled out a small blue commsphere that had been designed by Shinra especially for her. There were five others like it, one for each of the teens, so it wasn't _just_ for her, but they had been designed escpecially for them. They were the only commspheres in Spira that could link to other random commspheres, the ones Shinra had built during the time of Vegnagun had only linked back to the Celcius, but the ones the teens carried were like seperate miniature bases, each able to link to any commsphere in Spira.

But they did have their faults. The coverage only worked when both the commsphere sending the message and the commsphere recieving it remained stationary. Shinra couldn't figure out how to link two _moving_ commspheres together, but his inventions certainly were useful.

Shinra had taken a liking too the children, and had given them the commspheres two years before. During the fifteen years prior to that, he had been working on various other projects. He had designed several airships, helped to rebuild Home into a technological wonder, invented the ChocoTracker to keep track of Clasko's chocobos and Mr. Rin's, designed the hover blueprint that was able to seat at least twenty people and was easily operable (partly for the teens, but that was a secret) And various other things, but he never really developed the commsphere idea fully. True that most cities had one to connect to other cities, but they had yet to get into homes or other places. Shinra currently resided in Bevelle.

Aerella pressed several buttons on her commsphere, and it dialed Laralyne's commsphere with a serious of beeps. "CONNECTING" appeared across the screen in large commputer writing. After several moments it beeped and the words changed to, "No Response Recieved". Aerella puzzled for a second, cogs working furiously in her head, then she dialed again, only this time she called Shuyin. "No Signal". That meant that Laralyne's commsphere was relatively stationary, but was not being answered. Did she leave it at Djose? Aerella had never known any of the six too go anywhere without the commspheres. They were small, and could be slipped unnoticably almost anywhere. Laralyne had even concealed it in an elaborate hairdo once for a banquet. But she had a belt with her weapons. If she didn't have that, then something was very wrong. And if she just wasn't answering, then something was terribly, dreadfully wrong. The commsphere had a button on it that could be casually pressed in a situation where the commsphere couldn't be safely answered, such as when one of them were talking to their parent or at a social event. It could be easily pressed, without so much as an odd glance from anyone watching. And even though the commspheres were silent when they rang, they vibrated strongly, though invisible from someone watching, it was easy to feel. No matter what the case, something was drastically wrong.


End file.
